Cliff LyonArticles of Impeachment In The Hopper
Well, it’s done. The bill is in the hopper. Last Friday, outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney announced a bill to impeach President Bush.
Granted its not going anywhere, at least for now. Pelosi has made clear she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against making political hay of impeachment.
I can appreciate that. The time is not right, yet. Bush is not done screwing us yet.
Nevertheless, President Bush and key members of his administration have clearly committed impeachable offenses and the question of whether our officials should be held to account is paramount.
The question is: what is in the best interest of the country and our role in the world? As much as I and pretty much everyone has an opinion on this, it is one of those issues of such vital importance I must defer to greater minds on this subject.
Ed Firmage is one of those people. Across the horizon of thinkers, writers, advisors and practitioners of international and constitutional law, issues of war, and presidential politics, Ed Firmage has few peers.
Professor Firmage recently weighed in briefly on this subject in the affirmative. I would ask him to help us understand why we as a country should pursue what would surely be a terribly painful and difficult process. Who wins and at what price?
December 12th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Who wins and at what price?
The issue has nothing to do with pain or winning, it is what is required of government officers when criminality is determined amongst those in their ranks. To avoid impeaching the president because it is painful or because you believe it will hurt the Country, is to be unable to make the decisions required to preserve the Rule of Law in our Country, under Constitution, which is the fundamental part of their(officers) Oath, so as to preserve our liberties, against all enemies foreign and domestic, and that to our posterity.
Our Country has cancer, you deal or die. One way or the other.
It isn’t WHO wins Cliff, it is WHAT wins. What wins by pursuing impeachment is the Rule of Law. As in any crime with victims and good evidence, the prosecution of the perpetrators is mandatory. Crimes against the State have to move forward no matter what, or the Rule of Law is dead.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:19 am
America! what wins at whose price?
December 12th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
The bill went in the hopper, but then they took the hopper away along with the 109th Congress and Rep. McKinney.
December 12th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Cynthia McKinney will be missed only for her entertainment value. Since the Democrats will be taking power, thank goodness she is gone at a time when her amusing antics could truly become dangerous.
December 12th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Maybe McKinney can be a contributing author on DeLay’s new blog. Couldn’t hurt the blog any, that’s for sure.
DeLay is a santorum, too. Man is he going to get his ass kicked when he winds up in jail!
December 12th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
I’ve had a great respect for Cynthia Mckinney since she revealed the substance of the Presidential Daily Briefing delivered to G. W. Bush on Aug 6, 2001. Truely dangerous to those who fear having thier heads ripped forcefully from thier anus’.
December 13th, 2006 at 11:49 am
“What’s at stake here is the rule of law. Even the president of the United States has no right to break the law. If the House votes down this inquiry . . . nothing will happen. The result will be a return to the imperial presidency of the Nixon era, where the White House felt the laws did not apply to them, since they never would be punished. That would be a national tragedy of immense consequences.”
That was Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI), who most recently chaired the House Judiciary Committee in the Republican-dominated Congress, and will now be its ranking member. Oh, right, the “national tragedy of immense consequences” would be if President Clinton got off the hook. The year was 1998.
For more Republican eloquence, see here: Follow the Truth Wherever It Leads.